s images as visible
representations of his unseen God or gods, but the refined idolater, in
worshipping, considers that the idol contains in its substance a
portion of the all-pervading divinity.

182. Q. _What does the Buddhist think?_

A. The Buddhist reverences the Buddha's statue and the other things
you have mentioned, only as mementoes of the greatest, wisest, most
benevolent and compassionate man in this world-period (Kalpa). All
races and people preserve, treasure up, and value the relics and
mementoes of men and women who have been considered in any way great.
The Buddha, to us, seems more to be revered and beloved than any one
else, by every human being who knows sorrow.

183. Q. _Has the Buddha himself given us something definite upon this
subject?_

A. Certainly. In the _Maha Pari-Nirvana Sutta_ he says that
emancipation is attainable only by leading the Holy life, according to
the Noble Eight-fold Path, not by eternal worship (_amisa
puja_), nor by adoration of himself, or of another, or of any
image.

184. Q. _What was the Buddha's estimate of ceremonialism?_

A. From the beginning, he condemned the observance of ceremonies and
other external practices, which only tend to increase our spiritual
blindness and our clinging to mere lifeless forms.

185. Q. _What as to controversies?_

A. In numerous discourses he denounced this habit as most pernicious.
He prescribed penances for Bhikkhus who waste time and weaken their
higher intuitions in wrangling over theories and metaphysical
subtleties.

186. Q. _Are charms, incantations, the observance of lucky hours and
devil-dancing a part of Buddhism?_

A. They are positively repugnant to its fundamental principles. They
are the surviving relics of fetishism and pantheistic and other foreign
religions. In the _Brahmajata Sutta_ the Buddha has
categorically described these and other superstitions as Pagan, mean
and spurious.[6]

187. Q. _What striking contrasts are there between Buddhism and what
may be properly called "religions"?_

A. Among others, these: It teaches the highest goodness without a
creating God; a continuity of life without adhering to the
superstitious and selfish doctrine of an eternal, metaphysical
soul-substance that goes out of the body; a happiness without an
objective heaven; a method of salvation without a vicarious Saviour;
redemption by oneself as the Redeemer, and without rites, prayers,
penances, pr